“it took for me to rupture my achilles for her to really talk to me”: how breanna stewart and marta xargay found love in chaos
tw: brief discussions of an eating disorder and coach/player abuse
marta xargay casademont is a former spanish women’s basketball player, widely regarded as one of the best in spain’s history.
she started playing at the age of 6, joining the spanish national youth teams at 16 and making her professional debut with cb avenida in 2009 at the age of 18. as a strong point guard, she was a fixture on the national team, winning 7 medals (including three gold medals in eurobasket).
she spent most of her career playing for top euroleague teams: after avenida, she’d play for usk praha for three seasons before moving on to dynamo kursk. she’s most recognized by wnba fans for doing a short stint with the phoenix mercury in 2015 and 2016.
while marta was establishing herself on the national and european stage, breanna stewart was dominating college basketball as one of the best power forwards to ever do it.
she had one of the winningest uconn careers ever, winning four straight national championships and being named mop in each one (plus so, so, so many more accolades—if you’re here, you already know). she was also a fixture on team usa, first being named to the U16 team in 2009 at the age of 14.
in 2016, stewie was drafted first overall to the seattle storm, along with winning her first olympic gold medal. she’d spend her first few years overseas with shanghai baoshan dahua before signing with dynamo kursk for the 2018-2019 season.
they’d be joined by other notable players like piph prince and natasha howard. marta and stewie would be friendly with each other (while also too nervous to make a move). kursk would perform well in euroleague, but disaster would strike in the finals against ummc ekaterinburg:
stewie ruptured her achilles tendon—a nasty and painful injury. many people mourned kursk’s chance at the euroleague title and the russian league title (which they’d play for the following week). however, one person saw an opportunity and seized it.
when recalling their story in a video for the new york liberty, marta would say:
“Especially during Final Four, we were talking more and more and more, and that night, when she tore her Achilles, my soul was like, “Now or never!”, ‘cause she’s gonna leave.”
the injury would bring them closer, because they could lean on each other while struggling with their health and their bodies.
though marta's struggles were invisible at the time, they'd come to light a few years later. in 2021, longtime spanish women’s national team and former dynamo kursk head coach lucas mondelo was dismissed from the spanish women’s national team. after the announcement, marta revealed that she endured psychological abuse at his hand which led to developing bulimia and orthorexia during her time in kursk.
needless to say, marta and stewie were enduring hard times in 2019–but they did it together. their relationship would begin long-distance while stewie was recovering in the states and marta was finishing the season in russia. stewie missed the 2019 wnba season due to her injury and used it to her advantage by flying out to watch marta play in eurobasket that summer (spain would win gold, and marta would be the leading scorer of the final game).
stewie and marta would maintain long distance until another terrible event served as a blessing in disguise: the covid-19 pandemic.
marta's final season of professional basketball at home in girona would be cut short, as would stewie's first season with ummc ekaterinburg. the wnba delayed the start of the 2020 season until they could organize a quarantine bubble (affectionately called the 'wubble' by fans). guests were only allowed for those with support needs, such as players bringing caretakers for their children, or veteran players with a certain number of years of service, which stewie didn't have at the time—so, her storm teammates pulled some strings to make sure marta could be there with her.
the storm would win another championship...
...and, a few weeks later, stewie would have an engagement ring made. she held onto the ring for months, stating that she was waiting for the right moment to propose, which would come in may 2021.
their wedding would follow two months later in a casual, private ceremony, shortly before stewie would enter the tokyo olympics bubble and win her second gold medal.
then, they'd shock the world with the announcement of the birth of their daughter, ruby, one day after the gold medal game in tokyo!
their journey to motherhood was documented in a short video from togethxr. the documentary revealed that stewie had frozen her eggs in 2019 when she was injured, which allowed them to have a baby via surrogacy.
(ruby was a star from the moment she was born, by the way.)
marta would carry their second baby a little over a year later, giving birth to their son theo a few weeks after stewie's first wnba finals run with the new york liberty.
today, stewie and marta are still going strong, raising their babies together and professing their love for each other as much as they can—all thanks to stewie rupturing her achilles in 2019. :)
